BMJ 2003;327:1216-1218 (22 November), doi:10.1136/bmj.327.7425.1216
Clinical review
ABC of Resuscitation
The automated external defibrillator
Roy Liddle, C Sian Davies, Michael Colquhoun, Anthony J Handley
| The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below. |
Introduction
The automated external defibrillator (AED) is generally considered to be the most important development in defibrillator technology in recent years. Its development came about through the recognition that, in adults, the commonest primary arrhythmia at the onset of cardiac arrest is ventricular fibrillation or pulseless ventricular tachycardia. Survival is crucially dependent on minimising the delay before providing a countershock.Use of a manual defibrillator requires considerable training, particularly in the skills of interpreting electrocardiograms, and this greatly restricts the availability of prompt electrical treatment. Conventional emergency medical systems often cannot respond rapidly enough to provide defibrillation within the accepted time frame of eight minutes or less. This led to an investigation into ways of automating defibrillation so that defibrillators might be used by more people and, therefore, be more widely deployed in the community.
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Modern automated external defibrillator
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Principles of automated defibrillation
An AED automates many of the stages in performing defibrillation. The operator-->
Advantages of automated defibrillators
-->Public access defibrillation
-->Using an automated defibrillator
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